


The Mighty Fall

by huangjinguo



Series: It's Not a Side Effect of the Cocaine, I Am Thinking It Must Be Love [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Crack, Fluff, Hip hop au, M/M, Rockstar AU, Sort Of, it's just a stupid little thing i came up with
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:24:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huangjinguo/pseuds/huangjinguo
Summary: Rockstar Lay doesn't like Hip Hop artist Kris. At all. At least that's what they show on Twitter. What nobody knows is that they like each other so much they're calling each other boyfriends.





	The Mighty Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah idk I listened to "The Mighty Fall" by Fall Out Boy and had that idea I'm sorry. It's nothing deep, it's just some failed attempt to be funny - but if I try that, I just turn everything into crack lol.
> 
> The two songs used are "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" and "The Mighty Fall" by Fall Out Boy, so it's basically like they don't exist in that AU (I'm sorry, you should never deny the existence of that great band, but I had to for the sake of the plot). If you don't know Fall Out Boy (HOW?!?!?!) go check them out. I'll link the two songs at the end of the chapter. Yay!

**LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
Did you guys hear this song ‘Juice’ yet like can anyone tell me what he is saying I only understand naaaahsty.

 **KRIS GOT JUICE @realkriswu**  
That’s a lot of judgement coming from someone who’s lyrics get misheard 24/7. Thanks for the mammaries, homeboy. @imlay

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
My lyrics might get misheard but at least someone hears something. :* @realkriswu

***

“Wow, Lay, are you fucking kidding me? Are we in high school?”

His bandmate Dave puts down his phone and eyes Yixing with a lecturing look on his face. Yixing, who has been working on some lyrics, looks up from his notebook with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Your Twitter-Beef with that Kris dude. Internet’s all over that shit.”

Yixing rolls his eyes and goes back to his draft.

“Yeah, so what man. Let people talk about this before Taylor Swift gets ripped apart again. Nobody will care in a few weeks anyways.”

Dave raises an eyebrow, one of the skeptical sort and clears his throat before he reads aloud the headline he’s found through a quick Google search:

“Clash of the titans! Hip Hop Star Kris Wu and Set By Default Singer Lay get into Twitter fight!”

“Wow, really? _Titans_? I thought they’d come up with some semi-racist Chinese joke... I’m kind of disappointed!” Yixing laughs it off and stuffs his notebook into his backpack. “Seriously, it’s _media_ , and not even quality media on top of that. So Kris and I dissed each other a little on Twitter. What’s the big deal?”

Dave cannot find a good answer to that so Yixing calls it a day and leaves the drummer of their band behind in their recording studio where they’re working on some demos for the next album. Yixing, going by the artist name Lay, doesn’t have a car even though he could afford it, especially after his band’s last full-length album received gold and platinum status in countries all over the world. He doesn’t like to drive cars though, so he still rides his bike to his home, risking being recognized. While he cycles back home his mind jumps to ‘that Kris dude’, as Dave has called him. Kris, whose real name is Wu Yifan, is one of the hottest and most popular Hip Hop Artists these days. 

Yifan is everything Yixing isn’t. While Yixing was recording first demos in the garage of his parents with his other bandmates, Yifan was at the other side of the country mixing up his rap tapes. Yixing is the poetic front singer of the rockband Set By Default, an image that he has cultivated over the past years – he’s in charge for the lyrics and has penned more than one anthem for yet another Emo kid trapped in a small town surrounded by people who just don’t understand them. But Yixing, Lay, does. Lay, the kid of Chinese immigrants who has always been _different_ , who has always felt _out of place_ , like he doesn’t belong. Lay, the guy with the soft looking face but an enormous vocal range, the one who can sing arias but can also shred your ears with a long practiced scream core growl. Lay, the rock star who ironically enough doesn’t drink any alcohol and never invites groupies to his hotel rooms, doesn’t do drugs and doesn’t even smoke, the one who went to the Women’s March back in January and rants against any sort of discrimination on Twitter. Yixing himself doesn’t even know how he has managed to become the singer of a god damn rock band, but here he is, and he’s having lots of fun.

Yifan, on the other hand, is the guy wearing oversized shirts and spitting out one rhyme after another, some of them are pretty smart as Yixing finds, some of them are rather stupid and sometimes even sexist, something the rock singer wants to distance himself from as far as possible. Kris is known for not only his raps, but also for scandalous music videos that get banned into the night program of MTV, because the girls are either too naked, the pot smoked too much, or the satire too insulting for politicians and other artists. But nevertheless, people love him, especially the youngsters out on the streets because every rhyme that Yifan records, they just know that he’s telling the truth. He doesn’t beat around the bush – and if he disses the President of the United States in the process, then so be it, because god damn it, Donald Trump deserves the burn. If he is using explicit language to express his anger about all the things that go wrong in the country, it only shows his bravery to speak up for those who can’t. And some other people just love the way Kris insults basically everyone on his diss tracks.

It is pretty safe to say that Yixing and Yifan have absolutely nothing in common, except for strict Chinese parents that came to the U.S. as immigrants and who have both condemned their wishes to become stars. Yet...

Yixing opens the door to his loft apartment and sees some Nike Airs next to his newest pair of Vans, knowing exactly that their owner is probably sitting on his couch in the living room.

“I’m home!” He barks into the apartment and kicks off his shoes.

“I heard!” Is the answer and Yixing strolls into the living room, leaning against the doorway.

Yifan looks up from his phone, and even though he owns an iPhone 7s Plus, it still looks awfully small in his big hands. 

“Seriously, did you just try to roast me on Twitter? How loooooow!” He cries out and Yixing snorts.

“Come on, it was bound to happen. When you showed me the demo I told you not to try and fake that British accent!”

“It rhymes better with ‘posse’ that way, man!” Yifan tries to defend himself and Yixing rolls his eyes, but is smiling while doing so. 

He then proceeds to slip onto Yifan’s lap who grabs the smaller one tightly by the waist. Still smiling, Yixing gives him a kiss on the cheek and asks:

“How was New York, love?”

“Ugh, stressful!” Yifan exclaims. “I thought SNL would be chill but man, that shit was the most horrible thing I ever did!”

“Oh, but I thought you did well.”

“Thanks. I tried.”

Yixing snuggles into Yifan’s chest and takes a moment to listen to the other’s heartbeat. It almost feels like Yifan was gone for years, when in fact, he only flew over to New York for the SNL recording and hopped onto the next plane back to Los Angeles right afterwards. 

They don’t have much in common. But yet, they have been going steady for over a year now, after meeting at a party of a common friend in the industry. They had hung around the bar in their friend’s villa atop of Beverly Hills, not really feeling the whole pretentious attitude of the other guests and after one or two drinks on Yifan’s side they successfully managed to prevent anyone else from busting their conversation in speaking Chinese to each other. After a while, they had left the party together, with the plan to meet up soon again after Yixing would be back from Set By Default’s South America tour. When he had, Yifan had invited him over ‘to chill’, but chilling, actually, never happened. It was rather a long make out session on the couch that lead to sex in the bedroom – and breakfast the next morning.

“I missed you,” Yixing mumbles into his boyfriend’s chest and makes him chuckle.

“So much that you kicked off a Twitter beef. I don’t know about you, but,” Yifan says and opens his Twitter app, scrolling through his mentions that have exploded over the last few hours. “I think the public has declared us arch-enemies now.”

“So what? I don’t care much.”

“Seems like ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ is getting a whole new meaning now...”

“Ugh, lame.”

They skim through Yifan’s mentions, before the rapper says:

“We should make that a new thing. I’ve gained more followers in the last few hours than in the last weeks. Pretty sure iTunes sales are going up too. I could write you a nice diss track...”

“If you do that, we’re breaking up!” Yixing cries out and hits the back of Yifan’s head, slapping off his cap while doing so.

“Okay, okay! No diss track. But I have to say, if we keep that up we might get one or the other free PR... you know my new EP is coming up, I could use that.”

Yixing sighs.

“Fine. I’ll drag you a little more on Twitter.”

“Great!” Yifan responds, only to realize seconds later how that must have sounded. “God, I’m a fuck up, I’m asking my boyfriend to hate on me in public.”

“I always knew you’ve got some weird kinks, but hey, anything that makes you happy baby.”

The older one snorts and Yixing runs his fingers through the other’s hair that is finally growing back to normal lengths. Yixing has been missing Yifan’s hair – he likes pulling on it while riding him, but ever since his man has decided to keep his hair short to a maximum of a few inches, he had to find other body parts of his to hold on to, which is sort of annoying. The short hair phase seems to be over though, and Yixing almost wants to rejoice at the thought.

“You weren’t serious about that diss track though, weren’t you?” Yixing suddenly asks.

Yifan tosses his phone away, knowing very well he won’t find it any time soon in the pile of pillows that Yixing keeps on his couch.

“God, that will sound lame,” he mumbles, more to himself, then he turns back to Yixing, “Yixing, you know exactly that you’re probably the only person who’d never get such a track. Except for maybe my mother.”

“What an honor!” Yixing retorts sarcastically.

“Jesus fucking Christ Zhang Yixing, I fucking wrote July in the first weeks we got together which is basically the only thing I have ever written close to a love song, why are you even asking!”  
Yixing smiles upon hearing this and says:

“I liked that song. Very much.”

“Well, you better like it, it was solely meant for you to like it!” Yifan whines.

“That one line.... ‘never had a woman so good’, I really think that one was brilliant. Everybody thinks you’re talking about a woman who is different from the ones you had before...”

“... when in fact, I’m talking about a guy. I know, right?! I cannot believe I came up with that myself!” Yifan finishes Yixing’s sentence and they high five each other, before Yixing leans over and kisses him.

***

**LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
Every time I hear ‘nahsty’ I want to blow my brains against the ceiling.

 **KRIS GOT JUICE @realkriswu**  
That’s getting old now bro @imlay

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
Just like your wannabe-gangsta attitude @realkriswu

***

“Yo babe, aren’t you going to be at the VMAs too?” Yifan asks while slurping on his breakfast – a big cup of coffee – while Yixing prepares himself a bowl of fruit salad.

Yixing must be one of the most atypical rock stars that Yifan has ever come across, with his healthy breakfasts and the whole straight-edge thing, but then again, Yifan doesn’t know a lot of other guys from that scene so he doesn’t feel like he’s entitled to any judgement.

“Yeah, we also get to do the closing performance. Fifteen minutes as far as I know.”

“ _Fifteen minutes_? Fuck man whose dick did you suck to get that?”

“Are you accusing me of cheating?” Yixing asks and lifts the knife he has been cutting up his mango with. 

Yifan squeals.

“Sorry! You know how I mean that!”

“You’re the one to talk, aren’t you getting the opening slot? Don’t act like anyone’s sleeping on you.”

“Okay, okay, okayyyy!” Yifan cries out while Yixing sits down opposite to him.

“So what songs are you gonna perform?”

The singer lifts his shoulders, not really sure what to say about this.

“We wanted to play a new song and an old one but the new songs aren’t coming in quite yet...”

“Great!” Yifan exclaims and right when Yixing wants to ask him what can possibly be great about the creative hole he’s in right now, his boyfriend explains. “So, we’ve been ‘hating’ each other in public for quite some time now, right?”

“Right.”

“Yeah. What if we do some collab at the VMAs and show people that we’re cool now? Think about it – Set By Default is the closing act, you guys are performing, I don’t know, Thanks for the Memories or something like that, people are going madshit crazy... and then you perform a new song and BAMM, out of nowhere, I appear!”

“You mean like some Rock-Rap-Mashup-Thing?” 

“Yes! You do your rock thing, I spit some rhymes into the mic... people will lose their fucking minds! And then, afterwards, we do this bro-hug and we’re cool, and there will be even more iTunes sales for S.A.U.C.E!”

“Your EP is doing pretty well already, darling...”

“Yeah, but if I’m ever gonna buy us a house up in Canada, I gotta step up my game and need to get those green notes!”

Yixing cringes when he hears Yifan talking like that and says:

“If I say yes, will you get back to using normal language?”

“Yes! Probably... maybe...”

In that moment, Yifan’s phone goes off and he gets reminded that his manager wants him in his office in twenty minutes. 

“Shit, I have to go - but seriously, think about it,” he gets up and kisses Yixing softly on the cheek, which gets the younger one every time. “Afterwards we could at least hang out in public, I think I’d like that.”

With that, he leaves the apartment and Yixing is left thinking about Yifan’s idea. Actually, he is left thinking about their whole relationship in general – nobody, not even his bandmates, know about this, and they have talked this through and decided to keep it that way for now. But how should Yixing break the news to them that he had a chat with the guy he has been pretending to dislike about a possible collaboration for their VMA performance? He’s bad at lying, he always has been, and the others know him well enough to unmask any little dishonesty. There is no way he could come up with an excuse that’d be believed by them. He sighs into his breakfast bowl, half hoping for a solution to come out of it.

***

Yixing has decided to just break the news to his bandmates after asking Yifan if it’s okay to tell them. So the next day when he gets to the recording studio, he’s almost relieved when their bass player speaks up about the VMAs.

“So, what are we going to do about this? Fifteen minutes, closing act, we have to do something huge,” Sam says and scratches his head.

“Let’s go on stage naked,” Dave says, probably only half-meaning it, but his proposal finds disapproval among the others.

“Um,” Yixing raises his voice. “There might be something we could do.”

The other four turn to him with expectant faces and Yixing gets a little nervous.

“Whatever I’m about to say, don’t make a scene and just... listen, okay?”

“Oh, this sounds great, whatever it is, I’m in!” Their guitarist Josh says, but Yixing isn’t too sure if, out of all the people in this room, Josh is really going to dig this idea.

“Okay, well, you all know about the... thing... with Kris and me, right?”

“That never ending odyssey on Twitter?”

“Yeah. Exactly that.”

“Man, by the way, I’m really sorry he’s from the same country, must be hard to be sharing the same citizenship with that dumbass,” Dave throws in.

“Umm... well... yeah, there are a lot of Chinese people on this planet... so... I don’t know...” Yixing mumbles and is a little peeved someone else besides him is calling his boyfriend a dumbass. “So, I had this talk with him the other day and...”

“Huh what, you talked to him?” Josh says and suddenly sits up straight. “When did that happen?”

“Not that important, guys, we just happen to have a mutual friend is all...”

They don’t quite buy it, the singer knows from the looks on their faces, but they decide to first hear Yixing out, so they cross their arms and lean back in their chairs, indicating they’re listening.

“Anyways... we actually don’t hate each other, you know. And all I did was dragging him for something he already knew, I mean, when he wrote the song and showed me a demo I said the exact same thing to him, and... well, doesn’t matter, ummm, so, yeah, we talked and thought that maybe it’d be cool if we did something together. Like, I mean, the media thinks we’d be ready to jump each other’s throat so wouldn’t it be nice if we performed together to show that we’re cool again?”

It sounded better when he practiced that little speech in his head, but now the damage is done and his bandmates raise their eyebrows in question.

“This is confusing,” Dave finally says. “So you’re telling us you two are friends and did all this cyber-bullying for what? Retweets? Followers?”

“It was mostly Kris’ idea, I just tagged along, he wanted to push his EP a little,” Yixing quickly explains.

“Yeah, sounds like that moron,” Sam scoffs and Michael, their second guitarist, who has waited for any kind of judgement until now grunts in approval.

“Okay, umm, could you maybe also stop insulting him? He’s really not as bad as the image he’s showing to the public.”

“Hahaha, listen to you, you sound like some protective girlfriend that tries to defend her hot but super dumb quarterback boyfriend in high school,” Dave jokes and the others chuckle – except for Josh, the one out of the four who knows Yixing best.

“Dave,” he says. “Shut up, I think Yixing is not telling us the whole story.”

Yixing whimpers, because for one moment, he thought he’d be getting away with it. Josh leans forward and concludes like Sherlock:

“You know, the way you avoid looking at anyone in this room directly keeps telling me that there is more to the whole story, you’re also rather red in the face, the last time I’ve seen that was when I got you drunk after our finals in school and you vomited in my living room. So, my friend, time to be honest with us.”

That’s it. Yixing grunts and curses Josh who’s able to read Yixing like almost no one else. 

“Okay, fine, this is not the whole story,” he finally admits, “Me and Yifan... umm... well, shit, we’re together.”

There is a pregnant silence following until Sam speaks up:

“As in... you two are... boyfriends?”

“Yeah.” Is everything their singer can say, and he knows, defending himself won’t be any use.

“God damn it, Zhang Yixing, out of all the gays in Los Angeles, out of all the people you could possibly be with – it’s Kris Wu?!” Michael roars in disbelief and turns to Josh, “Josh, man, say something, you’re the only one he listens to!”

Josh doesn’t say anything though and just looks at Yixing who wishes himself dead. Of course, his bandmates would react like this.

“I don’t get it, Yixing. You are such a wonderful person, so full of love, and respect, you do so many good things in this world and then we have Kris Wu... it just... doesn’t fit together!” Michael goes on.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s common knowledge he’s pretty sexist, always on drugs and tries too hard to be black with his whole hip hop attitude. How can that guy spark any of your interest?”

“Okay, wow!” Yixing scoffs, “You guys are really something! Here I am telling you that I have a boyfriend and instead of being happy for me you drag him for things that you picked up from the same news coverage that planted rumors about every single one in this room!”

The other four fall silent, because Yixing is right.

“I mean, yes, yeah, he’s acted like an ass in public. His early music and his music videos are... questionable, to put it nicely. But he’s grown up and he really isn’t like that in private. It’s mostly his manager that tells him what to do and he does it because he earns money like that. I mean fuck, don’t you guys dare to tell me we are exactly like the people we pretend to be on stage.

“Plus, we always preach about how people have to give others a chance and all that shit, we gloat about how the world needs more understanding and love and what not - so why don’t you just try to give him a chance, huh? You don’t know him like I do.”

Yixing is usually a very calm type, but the more he talks, the angrier he gets and when he finishes his little speech, the others don’t know what to say at first. It’s Michael who finally sighs and says:

“I guess Yixing just defeated us with our own arguments.”

“It’s still weird!” Sam cries out.

Josh, who sits behind Sam kicks his shins.

“Y’all calm down, I know my boy, if Kris was that horrible as we all think he is, Yixing wouldn’t even dare to spend one minute with him. And by the way, I think the idea for the VMAs isn’t even that bad. Would be cool to do something new for a change. So... why don’t we just try this? Let Yixing bring Kris over and we’ll check if this works or not. I mean, no, none of us is really into Hip Hop and stuff, but we can’t deny that Kris is fucking influential with his work, even if it’s not up our road.”  
In those moments, Yixing knows exactly why Josh is his best friend. With a big smile, he says:

“Thanks, man!”

“But seriously, if he’s acting like a bitch and if he ever hurts you, I’m going to fuck him up!” Josh responds, not giving back the smile but rather a raised eyebrow.

***

**KRIS GOT JUICE @realkriswu**  
Everyone! I’m gonna be the opening act for the VMAs! I prepared some SICK stuff for y’all!

 **KRIS GOT JUICE @realkriswu**  
Actually, I’m wondering if they thought that through... nobody’s gonna want to watch the closing act after I’ve made my appearance.

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
@realkriswu You DO know that the management is only saving the best for last, right?

***

“You really want to make everyone believe that we hate each other’s guts before the VMAs right?” Yixing asks while he is trying to hide behind his hand as Yifan parks his car in front of Set By Default’s studio.

“Hey, you know me – I always go all in.”

With a smug grin, Yifan grabs Yixing’s thigh and squeezes it, making the other jump and lift his phone, eager to hit him.

“I swear to god, I will smash your face in!”

“Relaaaaax, oh my god, I was just fooling around with you!”

“Yeah, will you be still fooling around if paparazzi have caught us making out in a car?!”

“I get it, that’s why you are acting so jumpy!” Yifan says with a chuckle and stops the engine. “In that case, jump out, let’s go meet your family.”

“Don’t put it like that, I’m anxious enough as it is,” Yixing hisses, but hurries to get out of the vehicle and into the building.

Yifan is following him on his heels, and Yixing only starts breathing again when both of them are in front of the studio door and nobody has seen them so far. 

In the last two weeks, Yifan and Yixing have been working on a song, only to be able to give the rest of the band basically no excuse to turn Yifan down, just in case they really don’t like him. Now that the song is as ready as it can get, with the few equipment both of them privately own, they’re ready to face the rest of the musicians. Yifan tries to act cool, but Yixing knows that he is just as nervous as Yixing. With a last look at each other, Yixing opens the door and they walk into the studio, where the others are standing at their coffee machine since it’s 8 in the morning and all of them still seem to be asleep.

“Hey guys,” Yixing greets and Yifan follows right behind him, his hands buried in the pockets of his sweat pants, trying to act casual and cool.

The rest of the band lift their heads and mumble a “Hey!” before their eyes fall on Yifan who jumps at the sudden attention and lifts his oversized hand.

“Ummm... hi?”

The others eye Yifan suspiciously, then it’s Dave who speaks up:

“Hi! Do you want some coffee?”

“Ummmmmm... thanks man, but I had three mugs already, I think Yixing will kill me if I had another one...”

“Wow, really?” Yixing hisses but Dave says:

“Well, if it’s because of the caffeine, we have decaf here, too.”

Yifan looks at the packaging the drummer lifts up for him to see, then he says:

“I guess then it would be no problem!”

Yixing watches how his boyfriend strides over and Dave throws one of the pads into the machine. While pushes the power button, Yifan admits:

“To be honest... umm... I’m a big fan of yours...”

Yixing closes his eyes, because he feels so ashamed on the behalf of his boyfriend, and he just cannot bare the sight of him trying to make friends with his bandmates. Fuck man. This will go down south.

“Oh really?” Dave asks and hands him the mug with the freshly brewed coffee, “How so?”

Dave is a diva, and he likes being praised, maybe mostly because you never really get the spotlight when you’re the drummer. It’s always Yixing and Josh who are in the center of attention. It’s not like it annoys him very much, but if someone comes around and notices his presence behind his big ass drumset, he gladly accepts the compliments.

“Well, actually,” Yifan starts and leans against the counter, “I’ve always liked drums, you know. But I’m too bad at it myself. I gave up after a few tries, I just... I can’t coordinate my hands and legs at the same time...”

“Because they’re too long,” Yixing throws in and himself onto the couch of the studio, tickling a few chuckles out of everyone.

“Thanks babe, I’m aware of that!” Yifan responds, then gets back to Dave, “Anyways, before I even met Yixing I saw you guys play at a festival, I don’t remember the name though... you know, I was... I think I had the slot at noon and you guys played around three, and I just hung around, you know, and then I just checked out other artists... and... anyways, you had this _super sick_ drum solo after you guys played one of your earlier singles and I was like ‘Brooooo, what the fuck!’ and I became a fan, like... wow man, you got skills! I’ve always wanted to tell you that in person somehow so... yeah... oh fuck, I’m talking to much...”

Dave blinks confused at the flood of words spurting out of Yifan’s mouth, whose head turns red at the embarrassment. Yixing heaves a sigh, while Josh, who sat down next to him, chuckles and mumbles:

“I never knew your boyfriend was such a fanboy.”

“He never shuts up about it, actually... when I show him demos, he’s all over Dave’s drum parts, it’s almost like he’s in love with him and not with me,” Yixing admits with an eye roll, low enough to not let the others hear him.

In that moment, Dave seems to make a decision and he announces:

“Boys, we’ll keep him!”

The other men in the room start laughing as Dave puts an arm around Yifan and proclaims him his new best friend. After a little more smalltalk, in which even Sam has to admit that Yifan ‘isn’t that bad’, they get down to business.

“So, Yifan, you’ve proven not to be the asshole that we thought you were,” Michael says, “But can you and Yixing deliver something for the VMAs?”

“I got you!” Yifan says and pulls out his USB of his sweatpants.

Yixing feels, after calming down and getting comfortable with the situation, anxiety hitting him right back in the face. He really hopes the others like it, because he still feels that the song needs more work on it. Josh takes the USB and plugs it into the Mac.

“The Mighty Fall?” He asks when the folder appears.

“Yes,” Yixing answers.

“You got a name already? What happened Yixing?” 

Yixing rolls his eyes at the teasing, because he usually takes ages to find a name for a song that he’s satisfied with. There are a handful of songs that are basically done, but missing titles, and Yixing won’t accept some half-assed compromise. It’s what drives his bandmates crazy on almost a daily basis.

“Name was my idea,” Yifan chips in.

“It does sound cool,” Dave admits.

Getting a little praise from his idol makes Yifan appear a little taller and he tries to hide a smile. Between his little anxiety attack, Yixing stops for a moment and marvels at how cute his boyfriend can be. When Josh says “Here we go!” though, he feels like wanting to vomit again. As the song plays, he watches his bandmates who listen to the rough three minutes with unreadable facial expressions, something he hates when they’re doing that. It’s just to tease their lead singer, nothing more.

When the demo has stopped playing, the band turns around to face Yifan and Yixing.

“I mean... umm... it’s still very raw!” Yixing hurries to explain. “And Yifan himself said that he can change the rap part if you guys don’t like it... he’s got a few alternatives up his sleeve but we just went with what we thought sounded better...”

The other four look at each other, then they seem to find an agreement without any words. Dave is the one to speak up:

“Bro, we got ourselves a fucking deal here!”

“Wait... you like it?” Yifan asks and blinks confused, like a little deer lost in the woods.

“Hell yeah we do! We should’ve done this a billion years ago!” Josh says and hits the table with his flat hand. “Let’s get working guys!”

When the others jump up to grab their instruments, Yixing releases a long and relieved breath.

“Oh my god, that was easier than I thought,” he mumbles and Yifan shakes his head to get himself back together.

“I’m shocked!”

***

**LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
Hey guys! We’ve got some great things prepared for you @ the VMAs! Can’t wait for you to listen to some BRAND NEW music! :)

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
There’s a big surprise waiting for you so don’t listen to others  & watch to the end – bc the best is always saved for last~!

 **KRIS GOT JUICE @realkriswu**  
Like, you mean, the end of your performance? @imlay

***

Yixing cannot remember when exactly he’s been this nervous about a performance. They’ve done more than one very big gigs like Coachella, Rock am Ring, sold out stadium shows in Asia, the Grammys, a Victoria’s Secret runway show and all that other fancy shit that rock stars dream of playing – but none of those performance had made him want to vomit so much like this one is doing. The show has been a success so far. Yifan’s opening performance was, to put it into his own idiotic words, ‘lit’, it had social media blowing up, fans going crazy and even Yixing had to admit that he had outdone himself on that one. But he couldn’t show that because right when Yifan had ended with his song, the camera focused on Yixing to capture his reaction – and since everyone still thinks they hate each other, he just put on a poker face and crossed his arms in front of his chest, hiding behind a pair of sunglasses, even when he wanted to actually applaud for his boyfriend.

So now, almost three hours later, he’s standing backstage with the other boys and is waiting for the host to announce the last act for the evening. He’s not even on stage but he’s sweating like a sinner in church already, because he fears that somehow the moment when Yifan will enter the stage, everything will just go downhill.

“Yo, what if I just stick my tongue down your throat when I appear?”

Yifan laughs when Yixing squeals.

“Don’t you FUCKING dare!” He hisses and looks at the outfit he has changed into. “Are you kidding me?”

He’s wearing ripped tight jeans and a leather jacket over a plain white shirt, obviously trying to be punk when in fact, he’s so far from being punk that it almost looks ridiculous.

“Come on, I’m just trying to meet you guys half way here!”

“I like it!” Dave says and fumbles at the buttons on the jacket. “Punkrock kinda suits you.”

“Thanks man!” Yifan responds with a wide smile, then he looks at Yixing. “See? At least one person here appreciates my thoughtful outfit!”

“God, just don’t do any gay shit, okay? I cannot deal with the backlash,” Yixing says and hopes to be changing the topic.

“Yeaaah, okay. I won’t. Promise.”

“Guys, you need to get ready!”

A girl with a headset and a very annoying high pitched voice approaches them – she looks like a hamster on speed, probably resulting from getting the artists on stage on time while the producer of the show keeps yelling into her ear. When she sees Yifan, she frowns.

“Umm....?”

“It’s all good!” Josh says. “Don’t ask!”

“Oookay....? Umm... well... you need to get ready!”

She pulls the curtain aside that reveals the big stage and with a last shoulder pat for everyone, the band walks up to get to their instruments. Yixing stays behind for a moment and looks at Yifan who says in Chinese:

“You know, I’d kiss you but that bitch keeps staring at us so I’d find this very awkward.”

Yixing snorts, then he answers:

“Yeah. Don’t sweat it. Later then!”

Yifan nods with a grin, then they fist bump each other, which leaves the girl at the curtain even more confused. Yixing just gives her a wide smile before he enters the stage that is still kept in the dark while the host stands at another point in the hall babbling some stuff into his mic while looking into the camera:

“So now! Everyone! Give it up for the one rock band in the world that would even make your own mothers swoon! Here is! Set! By! De! Fault!”

The sound of yelling fangirls fills the hall while the stage gets illuminated and Yixing gets hit by a flash of light, robbing him of his sense of direction for a second. Then the intro of the first song in their medley starts playing. The energy that hits him with the first drum beats and chords is something Yixing will probably never be able to describe but when he opens his mouth to sing the first verse, the anxiety vanishes and it’s just him and the guys doing what they were supposed to do.

_I’m gonna make you bend and break – say a prayer, but let the good times roll  
In case god doesn’t show_

It’s actually funny how this song has become one of their most successful singles. Yixing clearly remembers writing the lyrics shortly after getting together with Yifan whom he’s met just when his last boyfriend had called it quits. Yixing has only told Yifan way after the music video had been released.

_One night and one more time – thanks for the memories, even though they weren’t so great  
He tastes like you, only sweeter._

To this day, fans have been asking who ‘he’ is Yixing is referring to, but he’s never given them a clear answer, leaving them nothing but speculations and fanfiction stories featuring him and Josh. As Yixing takes the microphone off its stand and walks over the stage, his eyes cross Yifan who peeks out from behind the curtain with a smug smile and a wink. God. Yeah. People will lose their fucking minds.

_They say I only think in the form of crunching numbers_  
In hotel rooms, collecting page six lovers  
Get me out of my mind  
Get you out of those clothes  
I'm a letter away  
From getting you into the mood 

When the next chorus sets in, the whole hall sings the lyrics at the top of their lungs, no matter if they’re actually a fan or not and it astonishes Yixing that one song can unite such a mass of people. He can’t help but to carry a wide smile on his face while they finish the song and then start the next one immediately, leaving only three more minutes until THAT song would come up.

Unfortunately, three minutes aren’t a very long time and when the last chord from their last released single vanished, all of them are drenched in sweat and the nervous feeling creeps back into Yixing’s stomach.

“Los Angeles!” Yixing yells into the mic, earning a whole lot of applause and yelling, “This is a new song exclusively for you! Make the most of it!”

In the corners of his eyes, Yixing sees Yifan disappearing again to get his own mic while the intro, a hard guitar riff, screeches through the massive stereo of the venue. _Get yourself together, Yixing._

_Did-did you trip down 12 steps into Malibu_  
Malibu, ooh, ooh, ooh  
So why the hell is there a light that's keeping us forever  
Bel Air baby, did you get dressed up?  
Pretty pout, pout  
While you bottomed out out  
I can't stop it when there's chemicals keeping us together 

There is an expectant atmosphere in the room, even though the audience is pumped up and jumps along to Dave’s drumbeat. It’s a good sign, Yixing reckons and starts with the chorus where he basically just sings his lungs out, something that works most of the time to capture people’s attention.

_Uh, uh, uh, I'm singing_  
Whoa, how the mighty fall  
The mighty fall  
The mighty fall  
They fall in love  
How the mighty fall  
The mighty fall  
The mighty fall  
Oh how the mighty fall in love 

It does the trick and the crowd starts cheering again, and Yixing bets that the cameramen are frantically looking for Yifan to do the same to him like they did to Yixing when he was on stage earlier. He almost laughs when he imagines the dumbfound look on their faces when they find out Yifan isn’t even in his seat. After the next verse, the bridge is on and then Yifan should jump out from backstage.

_It's getting clear_  
You're never coming clean  
So I'll lock you up inside  
And swallow - swallow the key 

While Yixing holds the tone, Yifan does appear at the end of the stage, completely in character with the stage persona that he likes to show off – the cool rapper, unfaced by all the things going on around him, striding over the stage with hand gestures and a smooth walk.

_Hello?_  
Yeah I know you said not to call unless I'm dying  
But I'm driving and I can't stop staring at my eyelids  
But even though my eyes closed, I still see you  
I just hope that when you see me I'm not see-through  
You know how we do 

The whole crowd gasps as they realize who is rapping along to the guitar riffs and is approaching Yixing. Yixing tries a neutral face and nods along to the rap.

_Some times I swear, I need a day just for me to lay_  
With some T and A, but the way we, the way we is do deeper  
Baby straight up chemistry DNA  
Make me wanna give you every dollar out my B of A  
Like, I let him climb on top  
I'm either fuckin' or workin', so the grind don't stop  
They say I got screws missing, well hell, only when I'm missing you  
And hell yeah I'm addict, boy, addicted to you 

Yixing has no time to scold Yifan for changing the god damn pronouns (they had agreed on talking about a girl), and also doesn’t have the time to hit him on the head for the naughty smile directed at him while rapping the last part, because the chorus kicks in immediately afterwards. While the last chorus is on, Yifan has finally caught up to him in the middle of the stage, and when Yixing yells out the very least ‘Oh, how the mighty fall in love’, he puts an arm around the smaller one who thinks that that might be it, but when Josh plays the final riff, Yifan turns Yixing’s head around.

“I just decided, I think I’m gonna kiss you now!” He yells against the music.

“Don’t you DARE WU-“

Yixing gets interrupted by Yifan’s lips that crash on his own and the audience’s reaction is so explosive, it almost knocks him off his feet. Yifan doesn’t even sweep his tongue over Yixing’s lips, but the smooch is enough to make the crowd forget every other performance this evening, because that is Kris Wu kissing Lay, and it’s the rest of the band watching them and actually cheering, and nobody has a clue what to do – even the host who is supposed to say some goodbye phrases can only manage to stammer a view incoherent sentences into his microphone while Yifan finally lets Yixing go. 

“What did I say about the gay shit oh my god!” Yixing whines while Yifan laughs wholeheartedly.

The other boys jump to their sides to bow to the fans and say:

“Yeah THAT’S what we’d call an end with a bang!”

“UGH, fuck all of you!” Yixing cries out as they get off the stage, “Do you know what the fuck we have to go through now?! All those annoying people on social media! INTERVIEWS explaining ourselves!”

“It’s almost like he doesn’t want anyone to know that I love him!” Yifan whines.

When they disappear behind the curtain, the girl with the headset just stares at them – she’s probably not even breathing in this moment. Yixing looks at her, then he says:

“Fucking uncalled for, right?!”

His comment paired with her lost facial expression makes everyone else roar with laughter. Then Yixing gets pushed further into the backstage area to their changing room. While the other guys disappear in the room to get rid of their sweaty clothes, Yifan grabs Yixing’s hand and holds him back from following them.

“Hey,” he says and forces Yixing to look at him, “Don’t be mad, please.”

“I’m not _mad_...” Yixing retorts, “I Just think you didn’t really think about the consequences.”

“I know, media is probably all over that shit already,” Yifan says and steps aside as a few staff members rush past them, maybe too busy to be realizing that he is holding Yixing’s hand. When they’re gone, Yifan keeps explaining, “It’s just... look, Yixing. You’re outed, and I’m not, mostly because... yeah. Hip Hop scene and shit, it’s pretty homophobic and in the early days, my manager told me to not let anyone know, because that would be like shoveling my own grave in the industry and I get that. But... you know... it’s not really fair that you have to be with someone who can’t stand up for himself? Who can’t like... stand up for you in some sort of way. And I thought a lot about this, and... I am what I am. Doesn’t change the music I make. Doesn’t change the type of person I am. I don’t need to hide anymore. If people are turning on me because of that, so be it, I don’t give a fuck.”

“I never expected you to make that public, baby,” Yixing says and feels his heart growing heavy, “I know that you’d get more backlash than me.”

“Yeah, but maybe because you never pressed me to go public with this, I feel like I need to. I want everyone to know that you’re mine. Like I said, I don’t give a fuck if some people in the industry will hate on me for that. I got you, that’s enough.”

“Fuck, Wu Yifan, you’re such a cheesy motherfucker!” Yixing cries out and Yifan chuckles before he gives the smaller one a long and soft kiss which makes Yixing’s heart flutter the same way their first kiss did when they got together – it’s like he’s just fallen all over for him a second time.

“Can you guys please add a little more tongue action?” Michael’s voice interrupts them and when the other two part their lips, Yixing sees his other bandmates in the doorway, while Michael is holding up his phone.

“Mike, what are you doing?” Yixing asks with a raised eyebrow.

“We’re live on Instagram!” He announces, “And I think we’ve never had more viewers!”

“I am going to FUCKING END YOU!” Yixing screeches – Michael exclaims an “Oh shit!” and starts running, his phone still held high.

Yixing follows him, because he feels like that little shithead needs a good beating, but when he hears the other guys’ laughter in the back, he can’t help but to laugh himself. Yifan is right, after all. As long as they got each other, it’s going to be fine.

***

**KRIS GOT JUICE & 张艺兴 @realkriswu**  
ik it’s weird but yes, I actually don’t hate that guy. Sorry for playing all of you. I did that for sales & views, that was wrong.

 **KRIS GOT JUICE & 张艺兴 @realkriswu**  
Not sorry though for being with him, because that’s the best fucking thing that happened to me.

 **KRIS GOT JUICE & 张艺兴 @realkriswu**  
If y’all got a problem with that, feel free to unfollow & delete my music. I’m still me. Nothing will change that.

**LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
Sorry for pulling all this stuff  & making you think that I hate the guy I love.

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
Ew, yes I said that.

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
I think it’s also time to finally answer the question who tastes sweeter than my ex. (a.k.a. the dude I sing about in Thnks Fr Th Mmrs)

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
Yepp. That would be Kris. Sorry to all the fangirls and their Jay-Fanfictions.

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
Please don’t ask me in which ways he tastes sweeter. I don’t want to elaborate. All I want to say is that I’m happy to have him.

 **LAY//SETBYDEFAULT @imlay**  
I know it sounds weird, but it is what it is. Please respect and support. You can still write Jay-fic if it makes you guys happy.

 

* * *

 

Check out [Thnks Fr Th Mmrs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onzL0EM1pKY) here. Listen to [The Mighty Fall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGPAv1Hq2-g) here (tw though it's kind of brutal).

Follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/HUANGJINGUO_) or [Curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/huangjinguo) for more bullshit.


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